School shutdowns seem to be sort of random right now--some places have closed schools, other nearby places have schools still open. My own district currently is not planning to close schools, but that will change if conditions change. It has, however, stopped large-gathering events, including some sports competitions. Will we hold Senior Awards Night and graduation? Time will tell.
We have 3 weeks until Spring Break. A nearby school district closed this week and said they were just going to swap this week for Spring Break. You can imagine how that went over, with students/families as well as staff having plans. They've reversed course on the Spring Break swap, just closing this week.
Have you heard that even Disneyland has closed due to coronavirus???
Here's the thing--if there isn't a strong push to get people to stay home and indoors, if we're just given time off, people will go somewhere and do something. I may hitch up the trailer and go camping (which, all things considered, is probably safer than staying at home!). Time off should be more than "social distancing", it should be more of a strongly encouraged but voluntary quarantine. Otherwise, is it really doing much good?
Closings shouldn't be mandated at the state level. They should be dictated by local conditions--no virus, no closings. Several states have closed all schools in the state? That's extreme.
2 comments:
I'm in Ohio and we are off, starting Tuesday, for three weeks (at least). Teachers in our district can come in to work if we choose, but not required. We can recommend things for our students to do, but cannot assign graded work because of special ed students' legal rights to what is in their IEPs and there is no way to provide that. I could teach with Google Classroom, my kids and I use it and other sites all the time so they would have no problems, but I can't. State tests are scheduled for about when we might return- I think there is a good chance those will get cancelled. We're spending today just trying to keep the kids positive and ease their minds as there are a lot of them who won't have their breakfasts and lunches as we are a total free lunch school- very poor kids. For many of them, the structure and attention and care they get from us is really important. I've told them I will check school email if they get lonely and want someone to connect with.
I believe school closures have to do with a couple of things:
1. The perceived need for school as daycare/provider of meals
2. The need for state money to maintain the budget.
I guarantee you teachers unions are going to demand more if they extend the contract year. It should also wake up parents that schools are NOT daycare and they should stop treating them as such. In short-most parents can afford cereal, milk, bread, peanut butter, cheese and canned soup. Please start caring for your kids as much as you do your cell phones.
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